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Taxi driver stabbed to death, killer arrested next day

Date Posted: 2004-01-09

An unemployed man from Tama, Tokyo was arrested on Dec. 27 on suspicion of robbery and the stabbing death of a Naha taxi driver a day earlier. Naha Police say that they apprehended Kenji Oba, 25, after he was discovered sleeping in a staircase of a department store. They thought he resembled a man suspected of the stabbing who was caught on a security video of a nearby convenience store, and when asked, the officers said Oba admitted to the crime.

Investigators say that Oba had hailed the taxi driven by 64-year-old Masaharu Nishime at a Naha entertainment district. When they arrived at a quiet residential area some two kilometers away, Oba stabbed Nishime several times to the chest. He then grabbed the money from the taxiís moneybox totaling Y9,960.

Oba told investigators he decided to rob a taxi because he needed money. He told the police he had arrived on Okinawa in December. His parents had reportedly reported him to police as missing several months ago. He also told investigators that he had stolen the kitchen knife he used in the stabbing from a Naha store earlier the same day. Police officers had found the bloodied knife inside the taxi when they arrived at the scene.